Dave Hazard

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Dave Hazard born in Bow, east London, in 1952 is a well known British 7th Dan Karateka and instructor of Shotokan Karate and was one of the few students present at the very beginning of British Karate.^[1] He is a former KUGB national champion and British team member. Like many of the early karateka he first trained in judo before starting karate ^[2]in 1969 at the Blackfriers club in London, where he trained under Keinosuke Enoeda, Hirokazu Kanazawa, Kato^[3] and Takahashi^[4].

In 1977 Hazard went to Japan where he studied in JKA instructor classes under Masatoshi Nakayama^[5]

In 1984 Hazard joined with Mick Dewey to found SEKU, the South of England Karate Union, later the Shotokan of England Karate Union, as grading examiner and technical director.^{[citation needed]} At this time he lived in Brighton and ran a black and brown belt club there, which is now run by Jess Lavender a 6th Dan.

Hazard later left SEKU and is now the chief instructor of an international association in the form of the Academy of Shotokan Karate, which he founded in 2003^[6], feeling in need of an environment that would allow him personally to evolve his approach to Shotokan Karate-Do. He is assisted within the ASK by senior instructors and karate-ka like Jeff Westgarth, Jess Lavender, Simon Staples and Paul Herbert. He is also the former Kata coach for the English national squad, due to the restructuring of the EKGB. He brings to many training courses his expertise in kata and their applications to differing situations. Dave Hazard maintains a good reputation amongst karateka worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Early years 2 Working 3 Training in Japan 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early years

David Frederick Hazard was born in Bow,London, England in 1952. His father's family owned a road haulage company and a public house, while his mother's family worked in the docks. At first the family lived in the upper two rooms of a four room terraced house in Stepney, with a shared outside toilet. When Dave was seven the family moved Harlow new town in Essex, to a house with two inside toilets, space for everyone and a garden. A few years later when Dave was about thirteen however his parents separated and his mother took the children back to the east end of London to a flat in Leyton. While his mother worked hard to support them he went to Ruckholt Manor Secondary School, an old and tough place. Refusing to join a gang he was picked on by both sides. After a bad beating by a group of boys one day his mother took him round to their houses so that he could fight and beat them one at a time, after which he had little more trouble^[7]. Not being a model student he had a regular Friday afternoon appointment with the headmaster for a caning. On one occasion the drama teacher challenged Dave to a fight for disrupting his classes and gave him a beating. The following day he took Dave out to the pub for a beer and advised him to use his brains constructively. On another occasion a teacher who had beaten a boy about the head causing temporary blindness was thrown out of a second floor window by older boys, breaking his legs and hips^[8].

[edit] Working

Dave Hazard left school aged sixteen and became an apprentice hairdresser in an old fashioned barbers shop where he became skilled at cutting hair. While working in another barbers shop a customer told him about Blackfriers karate club where there were Japanese instructors. In August 1969 he went to watch his first session, with Keinosuke Enoeda teaching assisted by Kato, and decided he wanted to become as good as a yellow belt he watched there^[9]. In 1972 Dave passed his first Dan grading. At the following training session he was still wearing a brown belt and Enoeda swapped belts with him, telling him to keep the black belt with Enoeda's name embroidered on it^[10]. Not long afterwards he was selected for the English national team^[11]. By the time Blackfriars dojo closed, the building being needed for a different use, Dave Hazard had risen from beginner to run the club. One girl called Katy who trained there was known as "Ee-ee" because of her squeaky kiai. Kate Bush was later seen on television singing her high pitched hit song "Wuthering Heights" with dance moves that appeared to come from karate. As well as working as a doorman Dave worked in a number of jobs including auto-electrics with his uncle and steel fixing, putting concrete reinforcing bars in place.

[edit] Training in Japan

In 1977 Dave Hazard travelled to Japan to train with the top masters. On leaving London he was surprised to find Tomita Sensei waiting at the airport to see him off. He had met Tomita when he had first come to England and now Tomita was repaying him. Training at the JKA headquarters in Ebisu, Tokyo he was recommended by Enoeda sensei to study the techniche of Yahara sensei who was of similar build. The two of them got on well and trained hard against each other.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Photo gallery
• Shotokan Way Interview